Another piece of the messed-up puzzle that was the 2016 U.S. presidential election fell into place on September 22, as the Department of Homeland Security confirmed that "Russian government cyber actors" targeted the voter registration system of a key battleground state.
Or did they? Well, maybe not, as DHS officials have now backtracked on whether or not Wisconsin's voter registration system — the state in question — was a target.
While U.S. officials had already claimed that the Russian government went after 21 states' voter registration systems, the September 22 statement was the first time that a state name was publicly named.
However, on Tuesday, September 26, the Associated Press reported that the government notified Wisconsin officials in error. “Based on our external analysis, the WI IP address affected belongs to the WI Department of Workforce Development, not the Elections Commission,” Juan Figueroa of the Homeland Security’s Office of Infrastructure Protection told the AP.
SEE ALSO:DEF CON's vote-hacking village made us think twice about election securityThat update stands in contrast to what was initially reported by Reuters, which noted that the Department of Homeland Security informed all 21 states on Sept. 22, with Wisconsin Elections Commission Administrator Michael Haas quickly identifying his specific state as being affected soon after.
The news agency reported Haas saying that the Russian government “scanned internet-connected election infrastructure likely seeking specific vulnerabilities such as access to voter registration databases, but the attempt to exploit vulnerabilities was unsuccessful.”
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NPRreported that officials from Washington and Connecticut also copped to the fact that their states' voter registration systems were targeted by Russian government hackers. Assuming officials from those states weren't also notified in error, that is.
Importantly, the voter registration system is notthe same as the actual machines used to cast votes — and Matt Tait of cybersecurity firm Capital Alpha Security issued a warning to everyone freaked out.
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That sentiment, combined with the fact that DHS officials told Congress in June that it had no proof of actual successful vote tampering by the Russian government, suggests that while this is a big story, it's not a "Russia stole the election" story.
As more officials come out and identify their states as also being targeted, which they are sure to do, we're likely to get a better picture — piece by hacked piece — of just what went down last year. Assuming DHS officials can get their stories straight, that is.
UPDATE: Sept. 27, 2017, 9:50 a.m. PDT This story has been updated to note that U.S. Department of Homeland Security is now saying Wisconsin's voter registration system was not targeted by the Russian government, despite earlier statements by officials to the contrary.
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